Atrial natriuretic peptide and sodium azide dependent guanylate cyclase activities in placentas from normal and severely toxemic patients.

Particulate guanylate cyclase is stimulated by several hormones through receptor-dependent and by nitrosovasodilators through receptor-independent mechanisms. A subtype of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) receptors is coupled to guanylate cyclase. It has been shown that there is a down-regulation of the affinity of ANP receptors to alpha-hANP in placental plasma membranes obtained from severely toxemic patients. We have asked the question whether these changes are associated with a down-regulation of ANP-dependent guanylate cyclase activity. Guanylate cyclase was determined by in vitro experiments using a placental plasma membrane fraction obtained from normal and from severely toxemic patients. The presence of ANP-dependent placental guanylate cyclase activity was demonstrated both in normal and toxemic placentas. Although basal guanylate cyclase activity was not influenced by toxemia of pregnancy, there was a significant decrease in the maximum stimulation of this enzyme by alpha-hANP (104.81 +/- 12.02% (n = 4) vs 49.41 +/- 8.73% (n = 7) for normal and toxemics, respectively). Finally, stimulation by a nitrosovasodilator, sodium azide (NaN3), was also lower in toxemic placentas than in normal controls. These observations extend our previously reported results on placental ANP receptor function but also suggest the presence of a possibly receptor-independent decrease in guanylate cyclase activity in toxemic placentas.